Going Hi-Tech on my 55 (This will be an adventure!)

[drewsuf82]

For the first time since the change, I have plants visibly releasing oxygen into the water tonight when I came home from work!



Not quite sure why the image didn't save in the right position

[drewsuf82]

Update 10/23/12

Think I'm going to start taking pictures before my Wednesday maintenance just so I can keep track of it over time

So without further delay....



As for an equipment update, my friend has ascertained that the PH controller has a bad chip and he is on the hunt to find one so I can get that going, I will also be trying to find some LED moonlights for night time viewing

[drewsuf82]

So the Carolina Fanwort got a trim tonight in order to help it grow at the same level, I took the trimmings and replanted them below to keep the low to high appearance going





Have also adjusted the CO2 and have now increased to about 75 BPM and have been seeing larger/increased pearling and the inhabitants seem to be alright with it. Going to edge it up just a bit more the next week to attempt to get some super growth to get through the algae phase...

[drewsuf82]

Got some flame moss in from H4n and some SS mesh and promptly added them



Will be adding more Rocks to create caves and hiding spaces and to scape it a bit more so those will be coming soon

[drewsuf82]

So now that things seem to be in a much more stable place in the tank I thought that I would give an update as to what I've done

Things added this week

• More rocks for caves for some Bristlenoses coming in I can't wait!!!!
• Pfertz Root tabs -- already seeing POSITIVE results
• About 3 dozen ghost shrimp (traded in some guppies trying to get rid of them -- the guppies)

Things taken out

• About 6 Adult Female Guppies (all quite ready to give birth) and some fry Off to the LFS but they were Fancy Guppies so someone will get a bundle of joy MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
• Did a good trimming - Having quite a bit of success with excel in getting rid of the BBA and haven't seen much being added so I think I have everything balanced out
• About 1/3 of a bucket of plant trimmings between the Fern, some moss that was BBA ridden, and trimmed back other plants

Other good things this week

• Bristlenose Plecos coming in Added small hiding areas througout the tank and created 3-4 mini caves for them
• Made a cave area out of the xmas moss in the left hand side of the tank
• Shrimp population seems to not be dying off as bad as it was
• I'm seeing a small section of snails surviving in the tanks, I am sure they came in with some plants but are quite readily cleaning up the algea that I have been killing off, soon they will meet their end with the YoYo loaches
• The Amazon swordlet plants have been doing great in the three days since I added the pfertz and are growing nicely

I had a great week with Algea this week and I think that I am starting to come out of the woods now using excel in conjunction with my CO2 setup (WOOT WOOT) I only had to scrape a few quarter size areas of the glass this week where the previous weeks I had been scraping basically the entire tank walls!

In other news my buddy is still tinkering with the PH controller, it's not any of the chips or processors so he's moving on to the resistors and diodes and fun stuff Can't wait to have that to get that running in the tank. I am also trying to plan out some other changes including covering the back wall with black, and working on some LED moonlights for late night viewing

Anyways onto the things which I am sure you all want to see....This week's pics!

Before
Here is a full shot of the tank


Some great growth from everyone in the tank, especially the carolina!


After


So you can see I did quite a bit of trimming and I rebunched and replanted the trimmings from the Carolina, it's starting to get fuller over there which is what I wanted, soon I will let it start taking off and then I will be sharing

Anyways guys thanks for viewing and for all of the awesome help I have been getting the last few weeks, I am seeing so much come around in this tank and my wheels are spinning for more tanks to come!

As always your comments and suggestions are always welcome!!!!!

[drewsuf82]

So after the smackdown that I laid on the BBA with excel spot dosing I melted my Val.....



You can see the damage I did with the excel (lesson learned)



However the good news is that there appears to be a few runners coming off so I gave the bigger leaves a STRONG trimming to get rid of any leaves which didn't appear healthy or with spots that appeared to be excel ridden. The good news is that in doing that I moved a few of them around and the root system is awesome so I'm hoping for a good bounceback!

I have been getting some great growth out of the 2x2 flame moss mesh (which has shot up overnight, great moss from H4n)



The Xmas moss has had good growth and in fact with tonight's trimming I was able to finish covering the rock up front there so now I can get ready to start moving it across the other rocks



And here is the current tonight The swordlets look good and the LFS had a plant with red so I figured that I would give it a try



Also on a sidenote the algae issue has pretty much cleared up as well, I have adjusted lighting and have lightened up the fert dosing so coupled with the addition of some bristlenose plecos have really turned that issue around, I only found 1 or 2 very small dots tonight on the glass.

Thanks for dropping by, I will be posting some new pics of my 10 gallon tomorrow, I'm redoing it to get ready for some shrimp

[drewsuf82]

Just wanted to add an update:

I went out and got some black background and it makes a world of difference!

Tank as of about 5 minutes ago!

[Chipster55]

Well Done!!! Just curious what kind of fert system dosing you are using? Maybe I missed it. The main thing that has kept my algae in check is lots of C02. That was the best advice I got during my plant and algae learning curve. My dropchecker is usually close to yellow and fish are fine. However every tank is different so keep an eye on fish. You could probably give me some pointers on the Xmas moss. I tried to tie it on my driftwood and it wouldn't stay. It was a pain for me as I had to either gather all moss from all over aquarium and reattach or throw it away to keep tank looking good. But great job!!

[drewsuf82]

Hey Chipster, sorry I missed your reply! I've been busy with school and stuff.

The xmas moss to the driftwood is simply attached with black cotton thread when I initially attached it I did it to keep it flush with the wood kind of in an alternating wrap pattern and it's done great ever since.... Try not to put it on too thick though because itll just melt and turn to soup

Update to follow momentarily

[drewsuf82]

WHEW so I figured that I would get this updated while I have about five minutes or so tonight

The XMAS moss has happily been filling in and is just about due for a trim and attachment to the rocks to get that moving, I tried the mesh on the rocks however the fish knock it off so it's time for some attachment measures


I thought this was a cool shot with the guppies at the top yea I know they're there for the air because the CO2 is running happily tonight -- on a side note they keep breeding I was down to 4 a month or so ago....


One of my YOYO's chillin in the cabomba I've pulled most of it up and replanted it so it's more dense in the corner which has opened up some room for IDK what I'll figure something out


These baby Amazons are just about ready to be put up to look for a new home what do you think?


Even the swords like the cabomba updated setup


And the Moneyshot AKA the FTS


Thanks guys, as always suggestions, comments, questions are welcome

[Chipster55]

Great looking Tank...What are you using for ferts and which system. Just curious because I've finally got my to perfect levels using EI and plently of C02 (which in my opinion is the best combatant against Algae)

[drewsuf82]

Hey and thanks!

Other than the substrate (Flora-max) I use pfertz root tabs in conjunction with a liquid regiment which I got from nilocg on the boards here. I'm actually having to re-acclimate the fish to the CO2 now apparently after being one day without it you have to start the process over again (so a mental note for me to make sure that I check the guages daily)

[Jaques]

I am just curious, how was the plant growth with the old lights?

[drewsuf82]

Jaques - The plant growth the old lights was very minimal, although plants like Wysteria and Java Fern did OK, I really didn't see any good growth until swapping out the lights.

Mosses did semi ok but would often start to brown the longer they got.

EDIT -- Wow I am overdue for an update on this thread, I just did a massive thinning in the tank, I'll have to see if I can't get some pictures taken this week.

[drewsuf82]

So yea totally overdue for an update here.....it's turned into a jungle and is going to be getting a trim down tonight